Helvetica’s 50-year anniversary celebrations in 2007 were overwhelming and contagious. We saw the movie. Twice. We bought the shirts and the buttons. We dug out the homage books and re-read the hate articles. We mourned the fading non-color of an old black shirt proudly exclaiming that “HELVETICA IS NOT AN ADOBE FONT”. We took part in long conversations discussing the merits of the Swiss classic, that most sacred of typographic dreamboats, outlasting its builder and tenants to go on alone and saturate the world with the fundamental truth of its perfect logarithm. We swooned again over its subtleties (“Ah, that mermaid of an R!”). We rehashed decades-old debates about “Hakzidenz,” “improvement in mind” and “less is more.” We dutifully cursed every single one of Helvetica’s knockoffs. We breathed deeply and closed our eyes on perfect Shakti Gawain-style visualizations of David Carson hack'n'slashing Arial — using a Swiss Army knife, no less — with all the infernal post-brutality of his creative disturbance and disturbed creativity. We then sailed without hesitation into the absurdities of analyzing Helvetica’s role in globalization and upcoming world blandness (China beware! Helvetica will invade you as silently and transparently as a sheet of rice paper!). And at the end of a perfect celebratory day, we positively affirmed à la Shakti, and solemnly whispered the energy of our affirmation unto the universal mind: “We appreciate Helvetica for getting us this far. We are now ready for release and await the arrival of the next head snatcher.” The great hype of Swisspalooza '07 prompted a look at Max Miedinger, the designer of Neue Haas Grotesk (later renamed to Helvetica). Surprisingly, what little biographical information available about Miedinger indicates that he was a typography consultant and type sales rep for the Haas foundry until 1956, after which time he was a freelance graphic designer — rather than the full-time type designer most Helvetica enthusiasts presume him to have been. It was under that freelance capacity that he was commissioned to design the regular and bold weights of Neue Haas Grotesk typeface. His role in designing Helvetica was never really trumpeted until long after the typeface attained global popularity. And, again surprisingly, Miedinger designed two more typefaces that seem to have been lost to the dust of film type history. One is called Pro Arte (1954), a very condensed Playbill-like slab serif that is similar to many of its genre. The other, made in 1964, is much more interesting. Its original name was Horizontal. Here it is, lest it becomes a Haas-been, presented to you in digital form by Canada Type under the name of its original designer, Miedinger, the Helvetica King. The original film face was a simple set of bold, panoramically wide caps and figures that give off a first impression of being an ultra wide Gothic incarnation of Microgramma. Upon a second look, they are clearly more than that. This face is a quirky, very non-Akzidental take on the vernacular, mostly an exercise in geometric modularity, but also includes some unconventional solutions to typical problems (like thinning the midline strokes across the board to minimize clogging in three-storey forms). This digital version introduces four new weights, ranging from Thin to Medium, alongside the bold original. The Miedinger package comes in all popular font formats, and supports Western, Central and Eastern European languages, as well as Esperanto, Maltese, Turkish and Celtic/Welsh. A few counter-less alternates are included in the fonts.

Many typefaces are distinctive or attractive at the expense of legibility and versatility. Not so the Optima® family. Simultaneously standing out and fitting in, there are few projects or imaging environments outside of its range. Although Optima is almost always grouped with sans serif typefaces, it should be considered a serifless roman. True to its Roman heritage, Optima has wide, full-bodied characters – especially in the capitals. Only the E, F and L deviate with narrow forms. Consistent with other Zapf designs, the cap S in Optima appears slightly top-heavy with a slight tilt to the right. The M is splayed, and the N, like a serif design, has light vertical strokes. The lowercase a and g in Optima are high-legibility two-storied designs. Optima can be set within a wide choice of line spacing values – from very tight to very open. In fact, there are few limits to the amount of white space that can be added between lines of text. Optima also benefits from a wide range of letter spacing capability. It can be set quite tight, or even slightly open – especially the capitals. If there are any guidelines, Optima should be set more open than tight. It’s not that readability is affected that much when Optima is set on the snug side; it’s just that the unhurried elegance and light gray typographic color created by the face are disrupted when letters are set too tight. Optima is also about as gregarious as a typeface can be. It mixes well with virtually any serif design and a surprisingly large number of sans serif faces. The Optima family is available in six weights, from roman to extra black, each with an italic counterpart. In addition, the family is available as a suite of OpenType® Pro fonts, providing for the automatic insertion of small caps, ligatures and alternate characters, in addition to offering an extended character set supporting most Central European and many Eastern European languages. When you’re ready to find its perfect pairing, browse these fantastic matches: Monotype Century Old Style™, Dante®, Frutiger® Serif, Joanna® Nova, Malabar™, and Soho®.

The Catalpa font family is José Scaglione and Veronika Burian’s wood type inspired design for an overwhelming headline presence. It has no regular weights, only four slender and four hulking weights. Catalpa wasn’t made to be normal; it was made to overwhelm, to stand out, to bellow. Catalpa is the first font family within a trilogy that will be released through 2020. Each of the three have a distinct purpose and their own look, but they serve a common goal: to act as a complete family covering an editorial’s wide array of needs. As the first of the three, Catalpa is the bookend font family with a headlining purpose. What requirements are there for a great headline typeface? Distinction, weight, and cohesiveness are a good start. Its distinctiveness must catch attention, it must have a range of weights applicable to its purpose, and its internal consistency and external look must create a cohesive family. Catalpa is a distinct and unified family whose weights are attuned to its single-minded purpose — headlines and large text. Catalpa has only eight styles that are divided into two ranges of weights — four very light weights (Hairline, Thin, Extralight, and Light ) and four very bold ones (Extrabold, Heavy, Black, and Extrablack). The thin and heavy ends of the spectrum also have their own variable fonts, each with one axis of weight so designers can fine-tune their work. The geometric influence of the design is more obvious in the light range, with their line thickness increasing in the classical manner. The bold weights increase more in width and substance to serve well in websites, mobile apps, posters, advertisements, and magazines that aim for impact more than spreading information. As a family, Catalpa gels in big headlines, short sentences, and isolated words. The family has many recognizable features, in the bolder weights especially, like the reversed contrast ‘S, s’ or the angular design of ‘Q, M, W, w, a, f, 2, 3’. Catalpa’s headlining mixture of geometry and quirkiness leaves an impression that is so characteristic of wood type, but designed for substrates and screens.

C.P. Company is a group of types including 4 different forms and it is a complementary sign of communication for the C.P. Company clothes maker. C.P. Company communication makes use of media such as the press and the web and that’s the reason why we have always felt the need for a font that would not show incongruities through the monitor. Therefore we have decided to change the structure of glyphs like a, e, g, s… in the most contrasted versions to prevent the serifs from touching the internal parts of the letters and in this manner we have made a really unusual stylistic choice for a group of types. The difference between the height of caps and smalls is very low (about 20%) so that the smalls are easy to read even when their dimensions are on a very small scale. Moreover this stylistic solution gives the possibility to avoid using the small capitals in case of charts and catalogue codes (i.e. Tricot M5) and provides more vertical compactness between the lines. Even a sentence written in capital letters next to another one written in smalls does not look so much contrasted from a typographical point of view and then it is not unpleasant. The limits due to different constructive principles have been overcome by means of a grid based on the automatic division of EM square of 9-point type and in this manner the letters have a wider face. The font is even more unusual owing to the style chosen that belongs to the classical tradition of hair-lined types for glyphs like e and also thanks to ligatures like ? in the characters set. CP Company is a geometrical font whose alphabet makes use of the style of types that preceded the Helvetica, matched with more experimental and updated solutions. Numbering is monospaced. The bending of number 2, the slight raising of the oblique serif of number 4 and the presence of a hair-line in number 7 are the solutions adopted to make the types match in a more balanced manner.

Buntypes Bunaero™ combines classical and contemporary characteristics to a unique and distinctive font family with extravagant but also harmonious appearance. The characters are clear, open and sometimes bellied. Especially the caps have a very high waistline. Based on this, four main states with different moods have been composed: The original Bunaero™, the more conservative “Classic”, the elegant and curvy “Up” and the matching ”Italic”. All states offer weights from a considerably thin „Hair“ to a real fat „Heavy“, so the family consist of 34 Styles, all with rather narrow width and very good legibility. The font was manually hinted and contains extensive handcrafted kerning tables to ensure flawless appearance in all media. It supports at least 99 languages incl. Vietnamese and provides ligatures, alternative glyphs, special localized forms and even more enjoyable OpenType® features. This Pro version of Bunaero also includes a lot of features for sophisticated users: Lining figures for headline setting; Intermediate linings and oldstyle figures for text setting; Tabular versions of all figures; Superiors, inferiors, numerators, denominators and automated fractions; Language specialities like a capital Eszett for the german language and extra characters with a polish kreska instead an acute; And many more. Further information: Bunaero™ Pro Specimen PDF Bunaero™ Pro OpenType® Quickguide Feature Summary*: -4 Moods: Normal, Classic, Up and Italic -9 weights: Hair, Light, Thin, SemiLight, Regular, SemiBold, Bold, ExtraBold and Heavy -Supports at least 99 Languages incl. eastern european and vietnamese languages -Overall width: Narrow or Space-Saving -Advanced f- ligature set including fb -Discretionary s- and c- ligatures -Alternative Characters: a, e, f, g, i, k, l, t, v, w, y, J, K, Q, R, and more -6 sets of figures: -Capital sized figures, oldstyle figures and intermediate figures, each in proportional and carefully adjusted tabular versions -Superiors, inferiors, numerators and denominators -Circled and negative circled figures -Capital German Eszett -Extra characters with Polish Kreska -Catalan Punt Volat -Extra characters with alternate minmalistic Cedille -Arrows -Automated feature for fractions as well as extended fraction character set -More than 1000 characters per font * Some features may only be available in OpenType®-savvy applications

Blue Goblet is a series of fonts and ornaments by Cory Godbey and Jeremy Dooley. This best selling series has now been extended to include a new member, Blue Goblet Serif. Blue Goblet Serif comes with a variety of weights and also an outline version. Blue Goblet is hand-lettered by the artist, Cory Godbey, and is organic, spontaneous and exuberant. Characters bounce and dance above and below the baseline and x-height, making this a whimsical and fun script. Not only is Blue Goblet Serif a excellent choice, it also is a member of a wide family of different fonts. You can use it side by side with the original Blue Goblet, and there are a wide range of ornaments available, totaling over 350 illustrations! These illustrations include frames, florals and other text ornaments that can be inserted into your text and resized at will. This makes the Blue Goblet series a great pick when you want a type system that works very well together for a very unique and consistent look. The Blue Goblet series continues to grow and be expanded, making it a valuable investment. Blue Goblet Serif also includes auto replacing ligatures that make it appear that the script was drawn by the artists own hand, just for you! Blue Goblet Serif also includes a wide variety of alternates that can be accessed in any OpenType enabled application. Blue Goblet includes over 150 OpenType glyphs, and is loaded with features including an even more unique alternate alphabet. Included are swash alternates, style sets, old style figures and small caps. Please see the informative PDF brochure to see these features in action. OpenType enabled applications such as the Adobe suite or Quark can take full advantage of the automatic replacing ligatures and alternates. This family also includes the glyphs to support a wide range of languages. Blue Goblet Serif is great choice for display and short blocks of display text, children's books, packaging, or other unique applications. Fill in the counter spaces with color for a unique look, or alternate the different weights. Use Blue Goblet whenever you want to inject a sense of fun and whimsy to your designs. Give the Blue Goblet series a try today!

Many typefaces are distinctive or attractive at the expense of legibility and versatility. Not so the Optima® family. Simultaneously standing out and fitting in, there are few projects or imaging environments outside of its range. Although Optima is almost always grouped with sans serif typefaces, it should be considered a serifless roman. True to its Roman heritage, Optima has wide, full-bodied characters – especially in the capitals. Only the E, F and L deviate with narrow forms. Consistent with other Zapf designs, the cap S in Optima appears slightly top-heavy with a slight tilt to the right. The M is splayed, and the N, like a serif design, has light vertical strokes. The lowercase a and g in Optima are high-legibility two-storied designs. Optima can be set within a wide choice of line spacing values – from very tight to very open. In fact, there are few limits to the amount of white space that can be added between lines of text. Optima also benefits from a wide range of letter spacing capability. It can be set quite tight, or even slightly open – especially the capitals. If there are any guidelines, Optima should be set more open than tight. It’s not that readability is affected that much when Optima is set on the snug side; it’s just that the unhurried elegance and light gray typographic color created by the face are disrupted when letters are set too tight. Optima is also about as gregarious as a typeface can be. It mixes well with virtually any serif design and a surprisingly large number of sans serif faces. The Optima family is available in six weights, from roman to extra black, each with an italic counterpart. In addition, the family is available as a suite of OpenType® Pro fonts, providing for the automatic insertion of small caps, ligatures and alternate characters, in addition to offering an extended character set supporting most Central European and many Eastern European languages. When you’re ready to find its perfect pairing, browse these fantastic matches: Monotype Century Old Style™, Dante®, Frutiger® Serif, Joanna® Nova, Malabar™ and Soho®.

Over the past couple of years I received quite a number of unusual and surprising requests to modify my type designs to suit projects of personal nature, but none top the ones that asked me to typeset and modify tattoos using Burgues Script or Adios. At first the whole idea was amusing to me, kind of like an inside joke. I had worked in corporate branding for a few years before becoming a type designer, and suddenly I was being asked to get involved in personal branding, as literally “personal” and “branding” as the expression can get. After a few such requests I began pondering the whole thing from a professional perspective. It was typography, after all, no matter how unusual the method or medium. A very personal kind of typography, too. The messages being typeset were commemorating friends, family, births, deaths, loves, principles, and things that influenced people in a deep and direct way, so much so that they chose to etch that influence on their bodies and wear it forever. And when you decide to wear something forever, style is of the essence. After digging into the tattooing scene, I have a whole new respect for tattoo artists. Wielding that machine is not easy, and driving pigment into people’s skin is an enormous responsibility. Not to mention that they're some of the very few who still use a crafty, hands-on process that is all but obsolete in other ornamentation methods. Some artists go the extra mile and take the time to develop their own lettering for tattooing purposes, and some are inventive enough to create letters based on the tattoo’s concept. But they are not the norm. Generally speaking, most tattoo artists use generic type designs to typeset words. Even the popular blackletter designs have become quite generic over the past few decades. I still cringe when I see something like Bank Script embedded into people’s skin, turning them into breathing, walking shareholder invitations or government bonds. There’s been quite a few attempts at making fonts out of whatever original tattoo designer typefaces can be found out there - wavy pseudo-comical letters, or rough thick brush scripts, but as far as I could tell a stylish skin script was never attempted in the digital age. And that’s why I decided to design Piel Script. Piel is Spanish for skin. In a way, Piel Script is a removed cousin of Burgues Script. Although the initial sketches were infused with some 1930s showcard lettering ideas (particularly those of B. Boley, whose amazing work was shown in Sign of the Times magazine), most of the important decisions about letter shapes and connectivity were reached by observing whatever strengths and weaknesses can be seen in tattoos using Burgues. Tattoos using Adios also provided some minor input. In retrospect, I suppose Affair exercised some influence as well, albeit in a minor way. I guess what I'm trying to say is there is as much of me in Piel Script as there is in any of the other major scripts I designed, even though the driving vision for it is entirely different from anything else I have ever done. I hope you like Piel Script. If you decide it to use it on your skin, I'll be very flattered. If you decide to use it on your skateboard or book cover, I'll be just as happy. Scripts can't get any more personal than this. Piel Script received the Letter2 award, where they selected the best 53 typefaces of the last decade, organised by ATypI.

Great Bromwich takes the ideas in Greater Albion's Bromwich family that little bit further. It can be used on its own, or as a compliment to Bromwich. Great Bromwich uses specially re-designed large and small capitals, to enable that bold headline statement to be made with impressive Edwardian flair. In the spirit of railway travel posters and illustrated news journals, its a wonderful font for poster design, or for book covers and other work with a period theme.

Manufactory JNL and its oblique counterpart were re-drawn from examples of a now-antique typeface used within many advertisements found throughout the pages of The American Stationer magazine, circa 1879. The term ‘manufactory’ was popular during this era; the word being a more archaic form of ‘factory’. There is a bit of Western flavor to this type design, as the spurred serifs and the top and bottom strokes are heavier than the vertical and mid-point stroke weights.

Bitblox fonts are based on the lettering created for Glyfyx’ eponymous wooden alphabet blocks. The characters are inspired by the low-res bitmap lettering seen on early generation computer devices. The Bitblox family consists of eight pixelated fonts, including a trio of styles that stack up to create a colorful, dimensional effect. An extensive multi-styled dingbat collection is also included. The Bitblox lettering was designed by James Beall with PSY/OPS Type Foundry, for Glyfyx Inc.

Ms. Claudy is an elegant modern calligraphy font that will look awesome on wedding and event stationery, logos and branding materials, cards and so on. Ms Claudy includes includes full set of Uppercase and Lowercase Basic Characters, Numerals and Punctuation. Also it contains ligatures and a lot of stylistic alternates to perfectly re-create natural calligraphy (check the previews in order to see them all). You can check your language typing characters in text box above.